


In Too Deep

by kirani



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Dating, Friends With Benefits, Hook-Up, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Making Out, Miscommunication, Sex Before Feelings, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:28:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23902351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirani/pseuds/kirani
Summary: Things had been different since Gansey came back from his road trip and various ecological protests. Not bad, just different. In fact, they had been quite good. But Declan had to call it off before he got hurt. Well, hurt worse.
Relationships: Richard Gansey III/Declan Lynch
Comments: 9
Kudos: 35





	In Too Deep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aurumdalseni (kyo_chan)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyo_chan/gifts).



> This is for my dear friend Aurum, who loves a good rare pair as much as I do and deserves a good pick me up.  
> Title is from the Sum41 song, shush.

He was eating strawberries. Who gave him strawberries? 

This was going to kill him. 

Gansey’s lips dripped with sweet juice and he grinned when he caught Declan staring. Declan felt his cheeks heat and glanced away. 

Things had been different since Gansey came back from his road trip and various ecological protests. Not bad, just different. In fact, they had been quite good.

It had started with a late-night visit to the Barns. Well it had begun after that. But looking back, it was that night that started it. Gansey had offered to show Declan… something from his trip. He didn’t remember what anymore. But Gansey, ridiculous Gansey, had no sense of time and had shown up at 1:30 in the morning. 

“Gansey? It’s one in the morning.”

His hair was messy like he had been running his fingers through it and his wire-frame glasses were perched on his nose. If he hadn’t been wearing a bright green polo shirt with his pajama pants it would have looked like he had just rolled out of bed himself.

“Oh. Were you sleeping? Sorry. I’ll just —”

“No, come in. You look like you haven’t slept in days, I’m not sending you back out to drive.”

Declan had steered him to the couch, tossed him a blanket, and put a cup of tea in his hands. 

“Are you alright?” Declan asked after a few moments of silent tea drinking. 

Gansey shrugged. “I can’t sleep. I mean, I usually can’t. But I got so used to sleeping with someone else in the bed or at least the room on the road and now I just… can never sleep.”

“Ah.” Declan had never had that particular problem but he could relate to sudden changes making sleep hard. “Would it help if you slept here? It’s only me here tonight but you could, um, if you wanted to.”

Gansey studied him with that look that meant he was trying to determine his intentions. He took another sip of tea before he answered. “You wouldn’t mind?”

Declan shook his head and Gansey gave him a small smile. They finished their tea in silence and then Declan led the way to his room. Gansey had frozen in the doorway when Declan turned to look, so he sat on the bed and patted the mattress softly. 

“Do you mind if I —?” Gansey tugged at the collar of his polo.

“Be my guest.” 

Gansey pulled the shirt off and climbed awkwardly into the other side of the double mattress. He folded his glasses and set them on the windowsill before laying back on the rarely-used pillow. 

Declan turned off the light and listened as Gansey’s breathing evened out beside him. Good. He deserved to sleep. He wondered if it meant anything that he was a trusted person for Gansey to fall asleep beside. He wondered if he wanted it to. 

But really, it had started the next morning. 

Naturally, Declan had woken first, used to rising early. He was, however, completely unused to waking up spooned around someone else. It had been months since he’d dated anyone and he hadn’t thought he’d missed having someone in his bed but his subconscious cuddling of his brother’s best friend said otherwise. 

He had tried to untangle himself from Gansey before he could wake up and notice his unfortunate morning wood pressed against his back, but his movements woke him and he turned his face up. “Declan?”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

In response, Gansey had rolled his hips back. Declan had gasped. 

“If you want?” Gansey had offered. He was giving Declan an out, an easy escape, if he wanted it. The problem was, Declan had wanted it. He had really wanted it. 

Gansey confused and excited him in equal measure. He was somehow so young, despite only being a year younger than Declan, and incredibly old. In this moment, he felt neither young nor old. He felt confident and assured and Declan only had to reach out and take. 

“Blue?” he had managed to ask. 

Gansey had rolled over in Declan’s arms to look him in the eye, leaving a few inches between their bodies. “We’re not like that. We never were.”

Declan stared at him a moment longer, trying to make up his mind. 

“Ronan either. In case you didn’t know. No strings. Just… feeling good. If you want,” Gansey said again. 

Declan nodded at last. “Yeah, I do.”

Gansey had closed the space between them immediately, wrapping Declan up in a deep, slow kiss and pressing his own erection against Declan’s. In return, Declan had slid a hand down Gansey’s back and pulled him tight to his chest. 

They had kissed for a long minute before Gansey rolled back, pulling Declan on top of him. “Fuck,” Declan had muttered, kissing down Gansey’s neck. “What do you want?”

“Anything,” Gansey had gasped back, tilting his head to the side to give Declan more room. 

Declan had bitten gently at Gansey’s exposed collarbone and then sat up, straddling his thighs. 

“Sit up, scoot back,” Declan had directed. Gansey hastened to obey, pulling himself up and propping up against the headboard. Declan stared after him for a moment, taking in his disheveled hair and kiss-swollen lips red as berries. Declan had done that. 

He had stripped his own shirt and crawled up Gansey’s legs until he was sitting on his thighs again. Gently, Declan had rolled his hips into Gansey’s.

“Ah, yes,” Gansey had moaned and reached down to the fly of Declan’s boxers. 

“Not yet,” Declan growled, grabbing the hand and pulling it above Gansey’s head and pinning it to the wall instinctually. “Shit, sorry, that was —”

Gansey shook his head and offered his other wrist as well. “You can. I like it.”

“Fuck,” Declan had muttered again, taking Gansey’s both wrists in his hand so they were crossed and pressed to the wall. Then he had ducked down to kiss the moans from Gansey’s mouth.

But now? Now, Declan had to call it off. “No string attached,” was what Gansey had said. But Declan had… acquired some strings. 

The two of them had found joy in each other’s body often over the last couple of months, but never had Gansey mentioned anything like feelings. So Declan was ending it before he got hurt. 

Well, hurt more. 

Because it turned out Gansey was good for him, in his own way. He encouraged Declan to speak his mind and never judged. He communicated clearly and always asked for what he wanted directly. 

When they hung out before or after, the conversation flowed easily and Declan thought they were both smiling more than they typically did. Probably just wishful thinking on Declan’s part. 

So. Ending it. 

Having finished his strawberries, Gansey wandered over to him and walked straight past. 

“Gotta wash my hands,” he explained, which Declan read as an invitation to follow and excused himself from the group quietly. Ronan and Adam didn’t seem to notice him move, but Blue watched him curiously.

When he had ducked down the hallway of the Barns towards the bathroom, he wasn’t surprised to be caught by Gansey and pressed up against the bathroom door with damp hands. 

For a moment, he kissed back, but then he pulled away.

“Gansey, wait,” Declan gasped against his lips.

“What’s wrong?” Gansey asked, releasing his hold and stepping back. 

Declan took Gansey’s hand and led him up the stairs to get some relative privacy. Only when they got to the top of the stairs did Declan realize he had laced their fingers together in his hold. He quickly dropped the hand and turned to him. 

“We have to stop,” he choked out.

Gansey’s face fell from concern to devastation instantly. “Why?”

“We said no strings,” Declan answered, hoping he wouldn’t have to say it aloud. 

“What?”

Dammit, he was going to have to say it. “We said, well, you said, no strings. So… no emotions. Just sex, which was fine! But I, maybe, have some feelings, um, now.” God, when was the last time having a conversation was so difficult?

Gansey just gaped at him. 

“So we have to stop,” Declan finished.

“What do you mean I said no strings?”

Now it was Declan’s turn to gape. “The first time! You said ‘no strings’ before we did anything!”

Gansey’s eyes were wide and he shook his head. “I don’t remember that. I —.” 

“What?”

“I thought we were… you know.”

Declan blinked, trying to work out what Gansey was saying. “You thought we were dating?”

His cheeks flushed hot and he turned his face away. “You don’t have to say it like it’s a bad thing. I thought we were on the same page. We hang out all the time. We talk about stuff. We have amazing sex. That sounds like dating. Nevermind.”

Gansey made to head back downstairs but Declan caught him and laced their fingers together again. 

“Wait, don’t we agree now?” he asked softly.

“What?” Gansey asked, his forehead furrowing.

“Gansey, I wanted to call it off because I like you and I thought it was just sex for you. Is it okay that I was a little late to the realization?”

Comprehension dawned on Gansey’s face. “Oh.”

“Is that a good ‘Oh’?” His heart was beating fast in his chest and he wished his brothers and friends weren’t downstairs.

Gansey smiled and pressed him back against the nearest wall again. “Yes.”

“Yes?” Declan breathed into the space between them.

“Be my boyfriend, Declan Lynch.” Gansey nudged a knee between Declan’s thighs as he said it. “No more confusion.”

“Yes,” Declan replied, pulling Gansey to him for a kiss. Gansey fell against him easily and kissed him hard. Declan slid his hands up into his boyfriend’s hair and tugged gently drawing a quiet whimper from Gansey.

They lost several minutes like that, warm bodies pressed to each other and heavy breathing captured by each others’ mouths. He slid his hands down and grasped Gansey’s ass, who obliged and jumped up to wrap his legs around Declan’s waist.

Declan walked forward and pinned him to the other wall of the hallway, kissing him again, relishing in the height difference that made him lean up in this position.

By the time he put Gansey down a while later, both of them were covered in a thin sheen of sweat and flushed red. 

“You look like you just got fucked against a wall,” Declan mused, trying to convince Gansey’s hair into something resembling fit for polite company. Gansey just rolled his eyes. 

“Everything but,” Gansey teased. 

“I like your hair, I didn’t hear you complaining.”

“I wasn’t. And you don’t look any better. Should we even bother to hide it?” he asked, smoothing Declan’s shirt with his palms. 

“They’ll know anyway, won’t they?”

Gansey hummed and nodded. “Time to face the music?”

Declan offered his hand and Gansey laced his fingers through his before they went back to join the group.

Of course, Blue saw them first. “Fucking finally!”

Gansey blushed prettily as all eyes turned to them, and Declan laid a kiss on his cheek.

“Gross,” said Ronan, wrapped around Adam on the couch.

“Double standard,” coughed Henry. 

Declan just squeezed his boyfriend’s hand and smiled. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr at [blueseyforthesoul](https://blueseyforthesoul.tumblr.com/).


End file.
